World's Oldest Trees Dying At Alarming Rate: Study (VIDEO) [1]

The Huffington Post  |  By Ryan Grenoble

Posted: 12/10/2012 4:47 pm EST  |  Updated: 12/10/2012 5:34 pm EST

According to a disturbing new report, the world's oldest and largest trees may be dying off -- and fast.

The study determined that trees between 100 and 300 years old are perishing "en masse" because of a deadly combination of large destructive events like forest fires, and other, more incremental factors like drought, high temperatures, logging and insect attack. The steady increase in threats means old trees are dying at 10 times their normal rate, researchers concluded. Their study appears in the Dec. 7 issue of the journal Science.

“It’s a worldwide problem and appears to be happening in most types of forest,” explained lead author David B. Lindenmayer, of Australian National University, in a release. "Large old trees are critical in many natural and human-dominated environments."

COMMENATARY:  Trees are our connection with the earth.  The older the tree, the more it has experienced and can pass on to us.  Connecting with a tree is so grounding and comforting to me.  They carry the energy of the sun, the wind and all the elementals. Birds and other animals use them as shelter. 

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